We look forward to engaging with you in a really constructive manner over the coming weeks and months. Our intention is to create an environment within which productive debates can take place with respect to policing and law enforcement.
The focus on policing practices both in the UK and overseas is rightly intense; yet the debates are not necessarily as informed as they should be given current circumstances. For these reasons, our desire is to connect with people and organisations who are looking to add long term value to the policing narrative, providing practical, well thought-through solutions to complex issues. In this sense we want to develop a learning approach that is capable of effective balance between ‘reflection-in’ and ‘reflection-on’ policing practice.
Current commentary is either lost in the necessary precision of academic parlance; or alternatively it suffers from the emotional outbursts frequently expressed through social media platforms. Whilst academic insight provides a real positive contribution to policing – it is frequently slow to react. Conversely, the regular social media flare-ups about policing are recurrently unhelpful, often quite tribal in nature and demonstrate a preference to argue rather than debate.
The Space for growth:
There needs to be a space where informed people can make insightful commentaries, drawing on either their academic or practical (or both) experiences. We live in unprecedented times, and like never before, ‘thinking’ about policing requires a meticulous, objective and diligent approach in order to appropriately influence the service. The practice of policing needs to react at extraordinary speed to events that rapidly unfold before them. It asks too much of officers and staff to manage these events without them being supplied with a diverse range of options for consideration. We want to add value to the service provision by drawing the theory and practice of policing closer together.
We seek to create a reflective community that can act as a critical friend for the service: critical – in the sense that we will not avoid holding difficult conversations on subject matter that is being insufficiently addressed; a friend to the service – in the sense that we seek to offer considered options to important issues in which the service is engaged.
In a healthy society, the strategic approaches adopted by executive leaders need to be carefully scrutinised against the purpose and values of democratic policing; at operational level, the debate about praxis needs to deepen by recognising the complexity within which officers and staff perform their daily duties. Policing Commentary seeks to bridge the gap between strategy and action.
Strategic Aims
We have four strategic aims:
- To encourage a more in-depth debate within and about policing and law enforcement.
- To hold difficult conversations with the service about areas of provision that we believe are not fit for purpose.
- To support policing in becoming more reflective in the analysis of its own profession.
- To provide a platform that positively considers alternative approaches to policing.
We want to achieve this within a values-based approach that is supportive, respective of diversity and difference, is positively disruptive and progressively curious. We are not always about achieving quick outcomes; sometimes it’s about adopting an approach that provides more considered and appropriate solutions to complex issues.
Areas of Focus:
There are a number of areas of policing provision that are of interest to Policing Commentary. Three are worthy of particular note:Politics of policing:
1. Policing is a political event. In the UK this is becoming ever more evident within the complexity of relationships between: government – via the Home Office and the Home Secretary; the policing executive in the guise of the National Police Chiefs’ Council; Individual Chief Constables and their local responsibilities; Individual Police and Crime Commissioners; The Police Federations; The Superintendents Association; Staff Associations such as the Black Police Association; Unison on behalf of police staff; College of Policing; Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services. This is a crowded landscape within which organisations and associations vie for control of their own specific mandate, as well as influencing the national narrative.
The Austerity Programme, introduced by the Coalition government in 2010, resulted in significant cuts to police manpower and resources. Evidence suggests this had a deleterious impact on community and joint agency policing, as well as reducing morale. Police leaders, in responding to these challenges, have introduced policies, strategies and programmes that have not always received public affirmation. While PCCs are in post to hold chief constables to account, recent research suggests that PCCs themselves are rarely held accountable for their statements or decisions. Chief Constables maintain nominal responsibility for all operational decisions but the question still remains as to how those decisions are mediated by the communities being policed, so that the police can derive the trust, legitimacy and authority they need to police by consent.
We have some constructive ideas to offer.
2. Back to the Future?
Given its overt populist appeal it is not perhaps of any surprise to discover that ‘performance management’ has been resuscitated and now threatens to envelop the entire service. Confronted with national targets demanding a 20% reduction in crime, this kind of highly charged political target may only see the return of questionable gaming techniques used by public services to achieve targets set for them.
Nor, given its populist nature, will the government be overly concerned as to how those targets are met. It will also now be overseen by a highly centralised National Policing Board which is likely to override local discretion along with local policing. This is likely to lead to a retread of past failures and speaks volumes about the absence of imagination in the development of policing strategy. It will however bring results that will play well with the popular press and to which national politicians act as ready servants. This along with dramatic changes in the profile of crime and future victimisation suggests that the debate over police effectiveness will be around for some time to come.
3. International Policing – USA
There is little doubt that over the last year, policing in the USA has become one of the central focuses of government and the media. Whilst the previous presidential administration sought to centre policing as the defender of The Constitution, movements such as Black Lives Matter identified the problematic nature between policing and minority communities. Likewise, the attack on the US Capitol presents policing with the challenge of holding law enforcement agencies to account for both their strategies and actions in the aftermath of a constitutional challenge of a manner not experienced since the nation’s Civil War. The knock-on effect of these seismic events reverberated across many liberal democracies. It will be of interest to observe the legislative, policing, and impacted communities’ response during a much-needed reform of the US criminal justice system.
Approach:
As a team, we will be regularly producing blogs centred on current policing issues. Once a quarter we will issue an extended paper on a topic of interest. We will be regularly issuing a ‘Friday 500’ focused commentary on a topic currently under the policing microscope that week.
There will also be frequent updates from team members as they contribute to the narrative within their own fields of expertise.
Watch out for our Zoom sessions.
Conclusion:
We look forward to building a constructive relationship with positively minded people who want to make a difference to policing. This is a location for considered insight rather than disruptive noise. We want to bridge the gap between theory and practice; strategy and action.